Pfizer and BioNTech on Tuesday said they had asked the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to authorize booster shots of their COVID-19 vaccine for all adults 18 and over, seeking to broaden who is eligible for a third shot.
The move comes as part of a long-running debate among experts over who should be eligible for booster shots. An FDA advisory panel voted against a request for all adults to have a booster in September, in what was a blow to the Biden administration’s earlier announcement of widespread shots.
But the eligibility has been gradually widening as experts point to concerns that the vaccines’ efficacy wanes over time.
The debate: Part of the discussion over boosters for younger adults has centered on whether the goal is to prevent people from being hospitalized with COVID-19 or whether the goal is to prevent them from getting sick at all, even if it is milder.
Some experts have said given that the initial doses of the vaccine have still been holding up very well against hospitalization or death, there is no need for widespread boosters for younger adults.
Anthony Fauci is one of the experts who has argued that preventing any illness from COVID-19 should be the goal, an argument that speaks more in favor of widespread booster shots.
“I think we should be preventing people from getting sick from COVID even if they don’t wind up in the hospital,” Fauci told The Atlantic Festival in September.
PFIZER CEO CALLS PEOPLE WHO SPREAD VACCINE MISINFORMATION ‘CRIMINALS’
Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla on Tuesday described people who spread false information about the coronavirus vaccines as “criminals.”
“Those people are criminals,” Bourla said to Atlantic Council CEO Frederick Kempe, CNBC reported. “They’re not bad people. They’re criminals because they have literally cost millions of lives.”
Bourla said a “very small” group of people has been spreading misinformation about the vaccines.
Millions in the United States have yet to be vaccinated despite the fact the COVID-19 vaccines have been available to people above the age of 12 for months.
“The only thing that stands between the new way of life and the current way of life is, frankly, hesitancy to vaccinations,” Bourla said.
Bourla’s comments come after a Kaiser Family Foundation poll found that eight in 10 Americans believe or are unsure of at least one false statement about COVID-19.
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More than 360,000 children under 12 have gotten at least one vaccine dose
More than 360,000 children under age 12 have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data, as the country scales up pediatric vaccinations.
The preliminary data as of Monday evening shows at least 156,000 children younger than 12 have started their vaccination regimen within the past two weeks, as doses first began to become available to those within that younger age group.
Children under 12 represented 5.2 percent of those who got their first dose within the past 14 days.
Despite making up 14 percent of the American population, those younger than 12 currently make up 0.2 percent of Americans who received at least one dose, since the vaccines have only been available for days.
Follows: The CDC officially recommended the Pfizer vaccine for 5- to 11-year-olds last week, marking the first time Americans younger than 12 became eligible for a COVID-19 vaccination.
The move, following the Food and Drug Administration’s emergency authorization for the age group late last month, opened up vaccinations to 28 million children across the U.S.
Caveat: The CDC noted that the vaccination data was available by age for about 205 million recipients, cautioning that the numbers ”only represent the geographic areas that contributed data” and therefore are “not generalizable to the entire US population.”
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What you need to know about the coronavirus right now
The Chinese city of Chengdu said on Wednesday it had conducted 30,000 COVID-19 tests on visitors at a big entertainment centre, and rounded up those who tried to flee the site, in the second mass screening in days. All COVID-19 tests were negative, the official China Central Television (CCTV) reported.
It was not clear how many visitors were at the New Century Global Center, which houses numerous shops, offices, a water park, and a university. At 1.7 million square metres, the floor area is equivalent to four Vatican Cities. Some people left the temporarily controlled area without authorisation, said CCTV, but were located via tracking services and tested. read more
India could ship vaccines to COVAX in a few weeks
India could resume deliveries of COVID-19 shots to global vaccine-sharing platform COVAX in a few weeks for the first time since April, two health industry sources said, ending a suspension of supplies that has hurt poor countries. read more
The World Health Organization (WHO), which co-leads COVAX, has been urging India to restart supplies for the programme, especially after it sent about 4 million doses to its neighbours and partners in October. Adar Poonawalla, CEO of the Serum Institute of India (SII), the world’s biggest vaccine maker, told Reuters last month that the company could send 20 million to 30 million doses a month to COVAX in November and December, which would increase to “large volumes” from January once India’s own needs were met.
Aucklanders return to malls as New Zealand eases lockdown
Shops and malls in New Zealand’s biggest city of Auckland opened their doors for the first time in three months on Wednesday as the epicentre of the country’s coronavirus outbreak gradually reopened. Shops filled up due to pent-up demand while some shoppers reportedly queued up overnight to take advantage of early bird offers at some stores. Libraries, museums and zoos were also allowed to open. The hospitality sector, however, remained shut.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has said the city will move into a new “traffic-light” system to manage outbreaks rather than lockdowns once 90% of Aucklanders have been fully vaccinated. About 84% of Aucklanders have had a second doses. read more
French health authority advises against Moderna COVID-19 vaccine for under 30s
France’s public health authority has recommended people under 30 be given Pfizer’s Comirnaty COVID-19 vaccine when available instead of Moderna Inc’s Spikevax shot, which carried comparatively higher risks of heart-related problems.
The Haute Autorite de Sante (HAS), which does not have legal power to ban or licence drugs but acts as an adviser to the French health sector, cited “very rare” risks linked to myocarditis, a heart disease, that had shown up in recent data on the Moderna vaccine and in a French study published on Monday. For people over 30, however, the authority explicitly recommended the use of the Moderna vaccine, saying its effectiveness was slightly superior. read more
Russia says it has turned tide on COVID-19 cases, deaths hit record high
Russia said last week’s nationwide workplace shutdown had helped turn the tide of surging COVID-19 cases, even as officials on Tuesday reported the largest one-day death toll of the pandemic. read more
St Petersburg, Russia’s second-largest city by population, has ordered mandatory
vaccination for people over 60 and those with chronic illnesses, a regional consumer health watchdog said. The step was significant because authorities have generally held back from forcing people to get inoculated, fearing it could entrench resistance to the domestically produced Sputnik V vaccine, which is already distrusted by many Russians. read more
Compiled by Karishma Singh Editing by Robert Birsel
